Morning Muse with Dave Arnold

Harm Watch - Harm Catch

A truck driver stopped at a roadside diner for lunch, and ordered a cheeseburger, coffee, and slice of apple pie. As he was about to eat, three men on motorcycles pulled up outside. They came in, and one grabbed the trucker’s cheeseburger out of his hand, and took a huge bite from it. The second biker drank the trucker’s coffee, and the third wolfed down his apple pie.

The truck driver didn’t say a word. He simply got up, paid the cashier, and left. When he was gone, the bikers snickered, and congratulated each other on being so bad. As the cashier walked up, one of them growled, “He ain’t much of a man, is he?” “He’s not much of a driver either,” the cashier replied. “He just backed his 18-wheeler over three motorcycles.”

Proverbs 26:27 warns, “If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it; if a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him” (NIV). This warns of doing mischief to others. “Digging a pit,” and “rolling a stone,” speaks of a deliberate effort to bring harm. However, their evil actions will return upon them, for “he will fall into it,” and “it will roll back on him.”

Clarkes Commentary On The Bible, commenting on this verse, says, “There is a Latin proverb like this: Malum consilium consultori pessimum, ‘a bad counsel, but worst to the giver.’ Harm watch; harm catch.

A couple was driving to their place on Cape Cod, when they saw a field full of blueberries. They stopped, and began to eat their fill. As they returned to their car, they noticed the rear door open.

On the back seat, a farmer was eating a cantaloupe they had bought at a fruit stand. “That’s my cantaloupe!” said the man. The old fellow swallowed, and, nodding toward the field, replied, “Them’s my blueberries.”